4.22.2008

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earthy Day, dear friends! I sort of hate Earth Day because I hate thinking this is the one day we do something "green" instead of incorporating the green thinking into our everyday lives. BUT, I am going to get over that today and offer you some lovely green links instead. Check out the "green" section in my sidebar but also check out my green designer friends at Moira & Obbie and Permacouture Institute, and check out EcoEtsy for all sorts of green goods. Then check out CarbonFootprint, the amazing website, Treehugger, the resources at Local Harvest to find your local organic produce and finish up with amazing eco-thinking literature over at EcoPoetics. Phew! Now, on with the greening!

3 comments:

You're right, every day should be earth day, which is Earth Day's slogan ("Make everyday Earth Day"). Yet I too wonder if the event is successful at making environmental stewardship happen over a sustained period of time.

(Here's where I diverge from the point of your blog post and go on my own sort-of-related tangent. Pardon me, but...)

I think our culture is obsessed with quick solutions and buzz words, and the buzz word of 2008 seems to be "GREEN." I'm growing impatient with the magazines and blogs who love to list "Ten Quick Things You Can Do To Make a Difference and Save the Earth", and present the ten things as though they are all weighted equally and all able to have any significant impact on environmental protection. Global warming, global habitat loss, rapid extinction and loss of biodiversity are not problems that can really be solved by bagging your groceries with paper instead of plastic or buying in bulk or even walking to work sometimes instead of driving. And yet many of us feel we must do SOMETHING, and so these lists appeal to us because they give us an easy way to feel we are affecting positive change. But at a gut level, we know these smaller actions aren't really significant enough.

And so, ultimately these lists disempower us from being able to truly affect environmental awareness and stewardship. I'm not saying we shouldn't continue to reduce our car use, use recycled materials, buy food locally. We should! But we should also resist the lazy conclusion that these choices will significantly address some of the bigger issues I mentioned before (global warming, etc.)

For a comprehensive look at the environmental choices we make every day and how much environmental damage they really cause, take a look at "The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists," by the Union of Concerned Scientists. And visit their website for more information about current environmental issues and proposed solutions: http://www.ucsusa.org/

For a thought provoking interview with Van Jones about the role of race and class in the "Environmental Movement," check out The Sun Magazine issue #387-- the article entitled, "Bridging the Green Divide..." www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/387

Oh, and by saying I am growing sick of the list of "10 things you can do," I wasn't referring to your post as an example of that. Your post provided links to information that can help us to learn to think more critically about these complex issues. Don't think I made myself clear. So thanks!